Hayes Freedom High School (HFHS), the Home of the Renegades, was established in 2008 by Amy Holms, who is the current principal of HFHS. Roughly 180 students attend the school.
“The first students of our school picked ‘renegades’ as their mascot,” Holms said. “For students to go to a new school, to move in a different direction, and forge a new and unique path through high school and pick Hayes defied the community norm. They saw being a Renegade as an opportunity to do things differently.”
Hayes Freedom derives its name from two sources: “Hayes,” honors Denis Hayes, a graduate of Camas High School (CHS) and founder of Earth Day on April 22; “Freedom” reflects the cherished belief in the importance of freedom in education.
The school is designed to embody this vision by protecting the Earth’s natural resources and enriching the learning process. The building is designed to be an interactive teaching tool.
“[We have] longer classes and classrooms that are big enough to accommodate everyone comfortably,” science teacher Heather Mulligan said.
The building engages with the surrounding environment and everyday decisions impact energy performance. They have solar panels on the building, ceiling windows, and ceiling fans instead of air conditioners. These approaches make HFHS green.
HFHS also has differences in the schedule it runs and the classes it has, such as Advocacy class.
Advocacy class is similar to a homeroom class. It is the one class where students will be in it with the same teacher every year. This class makes sure that they are always on top of their work. Every week students make a circle and start with an icebreaker activity, then move on to serious or silly questions that the teacher makes. They have reading time some days. They also do projects that focus on cultural topics such as the Black History Month project and the Women’s History Month project.
At HFHS, each class is 95 minutes long and Advocacy class is 50 minutes long
HFHS has four quarters in a year, so they can take enough classes in a school year. Each quarter is nine weeks long.
Students can also take core classes and elective classes such as True Stories, engineering, team development, and jazz guitar for zero period.
“I really like the small school and how we are really focused on learning, not just turning in assignments,” Mark Gardner, the English and psychology teacher, said. “We really prioritize learning and thinking, not just completing a bunch of busy work. I am always thinking about what I want my students to be thinking about, not just what I want them to be doing.”
Some students transferred from Camas High School or different high schools to HFHS.
”[HFHS math teacher] Ms. Ollmann actually sits there and helps you learn how to do it, a really big one is she understands her students,” Nic Fortune, who transferred from CHS last year, said. “She takes the time to actually understand and learn about the student and make relationships with the students.”
“[At] Hayes, you get a better chance to [get to] know the students because it’s smaller, so building community is easier,” Mulligan said.
HFHS announced that it is one of 42 schools statewide that received the Washington Schools on the Rise Award from the Association of Washington Student Leaders (AWSL) and the Association of Washington School Principals (AWSP) in 2025. This recognition celebrates schools where students and staff collaborate to improve school culture and amplify student voice.
